Alternative (sic) music of the last 30 years

Reconnected? Super! – Belly reunion

MPT is always a bit behind with the news but last week’s announcement that Tanya Donelly’s 90s post Throwing Muses band Belly have reformed seems worth drawing to your attention.

The announcement came somewhat out of the blue but is all the more welcome for that.

After a number of quiet years former Muse Tanya has had something of a slightly higher profile in recent years with her Swansong series of E.P.s (about to get a 3 CD issue on American Laundromat Records and Cargo in the UK) and live dates including support dates in the UK with the Muses in 2014.

Belly was formed by Tanya after she left the Muses and didn’t play on teh second Breeders album. Indeed many of the songs on excellent debut LP ‘Star’ were initially meant for that second Breeders album. (Incidentally demos from ‘Star’ are available as bonus tracks on Vol 4 of the Swan Song series.)

‘Star’ met with a fair degree of success in the UK and the US but second album ‘King’ didn’t have the same reach and the band split shortly afterwards. (Here’s a great recent feature on the making of ‘King’)

The band will be playing dates in the UK and US in the summer and are also recording new material – their first since ‘King’ in 1995.

The new material will be released two tracks at a time starting in April and building up to the live dates.

There’s apparently a fair degree of confidence that the UK dates will be in mid-July but my suggestion on Facebook that I hoped that that wasn’t going to mean Festival dates was agreed with by Chris Gorman from the band. Here’s hoping!

Ahead of further announcements here’s a couple of reminders of Belly from back in the day: